Conjectures Of A Guilty Bystander

you are a gardener

you cultivate my soul

you water thirsty vines

that snake along my spine

in case I forget to shiver

you are a carpenter

you build the scaffolding

replace the windowpane

I see the sky again

as if I've been delivered

you are a fisherman

my weather lets you know

when and when not to wait

your hook's inside the bait

I'm wary but I swallow

you are a messenger

you bring me all the news

the kind that never lies

it's written in my eyes

you beckon and it follows

I get to be guilty

you are a singer too

carry me like a tune

I'm like a newborn child

I'm wrapped up for a while

you're swaying like a hobo

you are a circus clown

I've never laughed before

beneath your canopy

oh say a prayer for me

I want this in a photo

so be a photographer

I'm dancing naked now

across the maple floor

above the lion's roar

your pictures will protect me

you must be a scientist by now

with rumpled midnight hair

you've studied every pore

and every follicle

of my bewildered body

I get to be guilty

yours is a different light

I like my face that way

the canvas of my skin

serene and strange but true